


A Christmas Flowergirl

by Spooky66



Series: Emily Holidays [3]
Category: The X-Files
Genre: Christmas, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-01
Updated: 2019-12-26
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:48:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 3,624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21636118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spooky66/pseuds/Spooky66
Summary: This Holiday season A Very Emily Christmas continues as we plan for a small Christmas wedding for our favorite agents. Warning copious amounts of fluff ahead.
Relationships: Fox Mulder/Dana Scully
Series: Emily Holidays [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1502897
Comments: 2
Kudos: 64





	1. Prologue

“Mom I told you we don’t want anything big. Just family.”

“Oh, Dana don’t you think it would be nice to have even a smaller wedding? You know the cousins will want to come.”

Maggie hands her daughter a wet plate to dry and Scully closes her eyes and counts to ten.

“There are far too many of them. If we invite even one everyone else will want to come. And, honestly, I feel like for most of them will just be there to gawk.”

“That’s a terrible thing to say about family.” Maggie tisks.

“But you know it’s true. I’m not denying that the past few years have been strange or that the situation with Emily is different and I won’t act like Mulder is not a character but I don’t want my wedding to be about that. And I don’t want to expose Emily to all those questions.”

“Can I at least invite my sisters?” Maggie uses the same voice she used when Charlie asked her to drop him off a block from school on his first day of high school.

It worked on him then and it works on Scully now.

She sighs heavily, “Fine mom. But that’s it.”

“What about Janice?”

The mention of Maggie’s best friend makes Scully repress a gag.

“No.”

“Dana she apologized for-“

“Mom.”

“Fine.”

The two do dishes in silence for a few minutes and simply listen to the sound of football and conversation in the other room.

“I’m sorry mom, I wish I could be more conventional.” And Scully means it. She knows that her mother must have held many dreams for her and Melissa that would never come true. The guilt begins to well up.

Maggie turns to her daughter, pulls off one rubber glove, and cups her cheek.

“Dana you have nothing to apologize for. You deserve your dream wedding, not mine. I’m just glad that you are happy.”

Scully smiles and pulls her mom into a hug.

“You are happy aren’t you?”  
Scully thinks of the spooky man in the living room shouting at the TV and the little girl at his feet coloring.

“I am happy.”

“Good. Then I’ll do whatever I can to make sure your wedding is perfect.”


	2. Dress Shopping

Ms. Keller watches Emily Scully’s little face scrunched up in concentration as she works on her drawing. 

“What are you working on Emily?” She’s met with the little girl’s big blue eyes.

“My flower girl outfit.” She proffers the paper which features a drawing of a girl, who she assumes is Emily, in a white and pink frilly dress. 

“That is very nice. When will you get to pick out your dress?” The teacher asks with a smile.

“Tonight! Momma and Grandma are taking me to look!” Emily is nearly shaking with anticipation.

“Well, that is very exciting.”

Emily is on cloud nine for the remainder of the day eagerly telling everyone she talks to about the dress and the upcoming wedding.

So when the three generations of Scully women enter a tiny boutique that night Emily can’t contain herself.

“You can look but don’t touch.” Scully tells the child with a gentle smile.

Maggie watches the little girl as Scully discusses dresses with the saleswoman.

“It’s a very casual wedding but she wants something special.”

“Is there a theme?” The woman asks as she flips through a book of options.

“No, no theme. But Emily has talked about having a dress that is appropriate for the holidays.”

“We have many options for that.”

The associate pulls out a few photos for them to show to Emily, who is surprisingly discerning.

The dresses before them are all taffeta and ruffles and Emily is delighted. When they turn to a certain page there is a significant price jump.

“Oh honey we can’t get any of these,” she begins to take the page when her mother stops her.

“Dana I’d like to pay for both your dress and hers, your dream dresses.”

Scully lowers her voice, “Mom these are far too expensive for a flower girl dress.”

Maggie waves her hand as if to erase her daughter’s concerns before taking the page and putting it back in front of an impatient Emily.

“You both deserve to have a special day.”

“Mulder has money, we can pay for this.”

Maggie pats her hand, “I know dear, I want to pay for it. Now accept my gift and move on.”

A wrinkle remains between Scully’s eyes until she sees Emily pick out what she deems to be the ‘perfect’ dress. The unadulterated joy that radiates from the little girl is infectious.

“Can I please get this one? It’s so pretty!”

The women look over her shoulder to see a pretty red velvet dress with a sparkly silver satin sash. The shoulders have a slight puff and a skirt with crinoline. The frosting on the cake is a poinsettia pinned by the right shoulder. It’s a lovely dress.

A photo next to it showed a pair of patent leather Mary Janes and a little crown of poinsettias.

Scully glances worriedly at her mother when she sees the price but Maggie Scully just smiles and nods to the saleswoman. Emily begins to clap but looks at her own mom for confirmation. Scully can’t stop her own grin.

“It’s perfect.”

They put in an order for the dress, shoes, and crown that will arrive a week before the wedding. Emily dances out of the store in front of her mom and grandma.

“Thank you mom.” Scully says with watery eyes and takes her mother’s hand.

Maggie simply squeezes back.


	3. Crafting with Mulder

Emily sits with folded arms and a pout on her face as she pretends not to watch Frosty the Snowman. Mulder ignores her indignation as he lays out various crafting items along with some milk and Christmas cookies.

It had been a half hour since Scully and her mother had left to go dress-shopping leaving behind a devastated Emily. Despite the little girls wining and crying Scully had not given an inch. And so Mulder found himself trying to plan elaborate activities to keep the child busy.

“Come on Em lets make some decorations, you’ll get some Oreos and milk, it’ll only cost you a smile.”

When Emily only shakes her head Mulder goes to sit next to her, “Hey munchkin I know you wanted to go but sometimes mom wants to spend alone time with grandma. You know how sometimes you like to spend time with just you and mommy?”

Emily’s head is turned away from him but she nods.

“Sometimes mom just wants to spend time alone with her mom. But while they are out me and you can spend some time together.”

Emily’s face changes but her arms remain crossed.

“I promise we will make a mess.”

A little smile appears and Mulder begins to tickle her until she is giggling. He hauls her over his shoulder and marches over to the table as she shrieks and laughs. 

On the table is an array of arts and crafts supplies.

“What do you want to play first?” He points at the supplies, “Maybe a Christmas mask or a reindeer ornament, or Christmas garland.”

“I want the sparkly craft!” Emily points at the pile of construction paper and glue with a shaker full of sparkles and a small bag of sequins.

“Ok…. So this is to make ah…” Mulder looks at the craft book he’d gotten from the library.

“I want to make a Christmas tree!” Emily doesn’t wait for a response as she grabs a handful of markers.

Mulder glances at the pages for a moment before tossing it aside with a smile. They each make three Christmas trees, each more outlandish than the last. As Emily starts on her next craft Mulder cuts them out, ties them together, and strings them like garland on one wall.

“What do you think kiddo?” Mulder asks, pleased with his work.

Emily nods seriously before getting back to the task at hand.

Scully returns nearly three hours later to an apartment littered in construction paper and glitter. Emily runs up to her excitedly wearing a headband made of neon green pipe cleaners to form asymmetrical alien antenna.

Scully’s eyes widen, “It looks like you guys had fun.”

The grins that cover both Mulder and Emily’s faces tamp down Scully’s initial irritation and she just shakes her head.

“You guys have made some nice decorations…”

A crackle sound comes from under Scully’s foot when she steps on some stray popcorn and she gives Mulder a flat look.

“The garland turned out great!” He points to a string of popcorn hanging in a doorway.

Emily runs up to hug Scully and show her a star made out of popciles and what she assumes is five pounds of glitter.

“Did you get a dress?”

Scully nods with a smile.

Emily frowns, “I want to see it.”

Cupping Emily’s round cheek Scully gives her a peck on the forehead, “I’ll take you to see it next week ok?”

Emily is not fully pacified but seems to accept her fate.

“I think it’s time for a bath.”

Emily, covered head to toe in glitter and glue, protests loudly until Scully pulls out a special bottle of peppermint Christmas bubble bath. When she sees the snowman shaped bottle Emily runs to the bathroom.

“So craft night went well.” Scully saunters up to Mulder also covered in debris from his night with the child.

“It was a raging success.”

“Well,” Scully’s voice lowers an octave, “Maybe after you finish cleaning up this mess I’ll make a special bath for you too.”

His eyes sparkle and he nods eagerly before Scully presses a kiss to the one clear patch of skin on his cheek and follows Emily into the bathroom.

The apartment is cleaned up in record time.


	4. Pearls of Wisdom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry not sorry for the chapter title.

Scully can tell that her mother isn’t pleased despite how the dress is overall quite modest the elder Scully squints at her daughter’s bare shoulders.

So Scully waits for the forthcoming comment.

“Dana I know you’re not sure if you want to have it in the church but this dress may make that choice for you.” Maggie Scully tries her best to refrain from hand wringing as her daughter sighs.

“Mom…” Scully isn’t sure what to say. Every other dress has not seemed. She’d not pictured herself as a bride since she was a child and her tastes had changed much since then. None of the others seemed right until finally, the saleswoman brought out an unadorned, off the shoulder, A-line, satin dress. It pleated nicely in the skirt and the overall effect was flattering on her figure in many ways.

It’s the first time she actually pictures herself walking down an aisle.

And it scares the shit out of her.

She tries to banish the image of the looming nave in the church she and her mother attend and replaces it with an imaginary chapel setting. It calms her, even more, when she thinks of a tux wearing Mulder, holding their little flower girl’s hand, sporting a huge grin.

Scully smiles at herself in the mirror.

“I’d still like Father McCue to preform the wedding if he can but I want a smaller setting. Maybe the little chapel next to the old church building outside the city.”

“If that would make you happy.” Maggie’s voice doesn’t carry the disappointment Scully was afraid of. When Scully looks up she is met with a matching pair of blue eyes but her mother’s eyes wet with tears.

“Oh mom,” Scully takes a step off the platform to hug her mother.

“You really do look like a bride in that dress.” Maggie strokes her daughter’s hair and lets a tear slip down her face before continuing, “I just wish…”

“I know.” Scully says and pulls her mom tighter.

“Oh!” Maggie pulls away and turns to rummage in her purse, “Now if you don’t want to wear it I understand but I thought maybe my wedding pearls as your ‘something old’.”

Maggie presents a box holding a simple string of freshwater pearls with an art deco clasp.

Scully’s eyes water as she gently touches the strand, “Grandma’s pearls?”

Maggie nods and takes the necklace out. It had originally been a present to Maggie’s mother, Katherine, from her father on their wedding. For most of their marriage, it had been the most expensive item they’d owned. When the stock market crashed and her husband had lost his job he’d insisted that the necklace was too important to sell.

“I hope your marriage is as successful as the women who wore it before you.” Maggie says poetically. Scully gives her mother a watery smile.

Scully envisions herself with quaffed hair, a modest veil, and a small bouquet of poinsettias. The image feels right.

As the two Scully women admire the ensemble in the mirror Scully assures her mother, “It will be.”


	5. Wedding Eve Eve

“Do you believe in Santa Scully?” Mulder asks in a voice far too seductive to be discussing Santa Claus. He sits horizontally on the couch at the bottom of a Scully Sandwich and he couldn’t be happier.

She swats at him but he can feel her give a small silent laugh. They’d done a back-to-back watch of the classic Miracle on 34thStreet and the new version.

“You know I grew up watching the original but I think I like this newer one better, more magical,” Mulder says as they continue to just sit and enjoy the warmth of the fire and each other.

Scully absently pets Emily’s sleeping head, which lays on her belly, “The mail scene is more dramatic though.”

“Yeah but that whole ‘we believe’ things gotta give you chills.”

“You just see yourself as Bryan Bedford.” Scully twists her head slightly to smirk at him.

“Well yes, better looking of course.”

“Of course.”

“What could describe me better than a dashing man who believes in crazy things in love with a woman who doesn’t. I mean we even have a cute little girl in the mix.”

Mulder tightens his arms around Scully and kisses her neck.

“Do you believe in Santa then?”

Mulder hums against her neck causing a slight squirm from his intended before he whispers, “Myths exist for a reason, Scully. This one exists all around the world in one way or another and has been around for a very long time.”

“Is that a yes?”

“I’m just saying that the myth came from somewhere.”

Scully laughs softly and shakes her head before moving to get up.

Mulder scoots out from under her and carries Emily to bed where she lazily opens her eyes before turning over and falling back asleep.

“Merry Wedding Eve Eve.” Mulder wraps his arms around Scully and begins to pull her towards the bedroom, “I say we celebrate early.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise there will be a wedding. Tomorrow (26th of Dec) Merry Christmas!


	6. Two parts of a perfect whole

The tiny chapel smells like pine needles with an underlying aroma of the smell all old churches seem to share. Mulder’s nerves hum and he rolls the thin, unadorned, gold wedding band between his fingers. It’s not traditional, which suits him well. Scully didn’t have some grand entrance but it made his heart beat out of his chest when she looked up at him. She walked in holding Emily’s hand and a small bouquet. A woman played a modest rendition of ‘Oh Come Let Us Adore Him’ as the two walked the short distance hand in hand.

Mulder had gotten close to marriage once and it had made him jumpy even thinking about it then (and now). Since then he’d often wondered if he would be standing at the altar ready to run but instead he found himself beaming.

It was Scully after all he’d decided long ago that they’d be together forever. She was ethereal. Lips a cheerful red that matched the roses and poinsettias in her hand. A slight smile plays on her lips and her eyes soften as she looks down at Emily who practically skips down the short aisle.

Moments before they entered the church Emily had decided she’d rather hold her mother’s hand than sprinkle pedals. Two-quarters of the way Emily breaks off and runs toward Mulder who lifts her up in his arms. It was surreal.

“Do you like my dress?” Emily whispers in Mulder’s ear and plays with his bowtie.

“You look very pretty.” He kisses her head.

“Hey.” Scully whispers. Her face is blissful. It’s an expression he’s only seen on her face sparingly in the past few years. Usually while holding Emily or in bed. Here it has an edge of hopefulness to it that makes his heart soar while also scaring him shitless.

Scully as always reads him so well and places her palm on his cheek. His eyes close automatically and he leans into her hand.

After a moment he places Emily back on the floor and takes Scully’s hand.

She hands Emily her bouquet and takes his other hand.

The pews seat a select few: The Lone Gunmen, Skinner, Maggie, and Mulder’s mother.

Teena Mulder had surprised her son by accepting his invitation. She seemed genuinely emotional. Before the ceremony, she’d come straight to her son to give him a kiss on the cheek.

Teena had met Emily a handful times and, like everyone, was charmed by the little girl. She’d been softening as Scully encouraged Mulder to welcome Mrs. Mulder into their new little family.

Maggie was already dabbing at her eyes, as was Frohike.

Father McCue stood in front of them. Despite being in a Catholic church with a priest doing the ceremony they had not wanted a wedding mass but Father McCue was still very willing to perform the ceremony.

During a couple discussions about what they wanted the ceremony to look like had trimmed it down to a reading, vows, and a kiss. Mulder had insisted that he choose the reading and it be a secret, which Scully found charming.

And so Byers walks up with a slightly crumpled sheet of paper and clears his throat:

“I’ll-uh- be reading the poem ‘Love Sonnet 17’ by Pablo Neruda chosen by Mulder” He wipes his palm on his pants, “ _I don’t love you as if you were the salt-rose, topaz_

_or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:_

_I love you as certain dark things are loved,_

_Secretly, between the shadow and the soul._

_I love you as the plant that doesn’t bloom and carries_

_hidden within itself the light of those flowers,_

_and thanks to your love, darkly in my body_

_lives the dense fragrance that rises from the earth._

_I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,_

_I love you simply, without problems or pride:_

_I love you in this way because I don’t know any other way of loving_

_but this, in which there is no I or you,_

_so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand,_

_so intimate that when I fall asleep it is your eyes that close._ ”

Scully looks at him with watery eyes, wanting to kiss him there. Mulder looks bashful and watches their joined hands.

Father McCue invites a relieved Byers to take his seat.

“I understand the two of you have written your own vows.”

The partners nod.

Scully starts, “I don’t believe in destiny but I believe that each choice has the potential to change our lives. When I made the choice to join the FBI I knew I was changing my life. So much has happened since then, good and bad, but I wouldn’t change a day. I’m not sure I believe in soul mates either, at least not in the traditional sense. But maybe two people become perfect for each other as time passes. Over the past few years, we have become two parts of a whole, you’re my perfect other. You’re my partner and the father to my daughter and I am excited that soon I will be able to call you my husband.”

Scully looks slightly self-conscious when she finishes until she meets Mulder’s beautiful hazel eyes and knows it was exactly what she needed to say.

Mulder swallows, “Well this works perfectly. Just like us our vows complement each other.” He grins at her and starts with his memorized vows, “I believe in fate and in soul mates. I believe everything happens for a reason, but I also believe in choice. So while providence brought us together we made the choice to stay. For me, though, it was hardly a choice. You are the most brilliant, beautiful, kind soul I’ve ever met and the one thing I can’t believe is that you have chosen me. I’d given up on the idea of a family but with you, I’ve found it. We’re less than traditional but I would never want anything else. Thank you for letting me be Emily’s dad and now your husband.”

Scully’s eyes rolled up hoping to hold back tears but a couple get loose. She’s always been a pretty crier. The priest does the standard vows then: sickness and health and so on they both agree but know that the statements had been true for years.

“I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss.”

Mulder struggles to keep the kiss PG in front of their audience as her tongue casually slides into his mouth. It’s both familiar and jarring; still, to be kissing Scully. The applause from the small audience breaks their kiss.

He’s surprised to see Scully’s eyes dark with desire it makes him immediately regretful that they would be having a small luncheon with everyone instead of going straight to their hotel.

There would be time later, of course, the rest of their lives.


End file.
